Can't we give a lawman a fighting chance before some loudmouths swathim?

No wonder crime flourishes. Our newly-appointed Secretary of the Interior and Local Government hadn't even warmed his seat, or taken to the field for that matter, before Rep. Carlos M. Padilla (lone district, Nueva Vizcaya) announced that the Commission on Appointments in Congress would give him a hard time over his "human rights" record.

What's that supposed to mean? That Lim should pussyfoot his way among politicians? At the turnover ceremony at Camp Crame last Monday, Lim was further challenged on his so-called "human rights" violations in the past. His reply was testy, and now Senators Franklin Drilon and Teofisto Guingona are snarling about questioning him in the Commission about his human rights "violation" of criminals.

Susmariosep. Our grandstanding political showboats seem to have more tender feelings towards the human rights of criminals and hoodlums than towards the right to safety and even life of peaceful civilians.

Fortunately, their mean dispositions are not shared, quite obviously, by the vast majority of our harassed citizens. Never has an appointment of a Cabinet member by President Estrada been met with such widespread acclaim.

Tell me, Dear Reader: Would you feel safer walking down a dark and dangerous street at night with Frank Drilon and Tito Guingona -- or Fred Lim? Don't even think about Carlos Padilla. What has he done for peace and order, and the right of millions of Filipinos to demand peace of mind, the protection of the law, and a defense from the brutal violation of their own persons and their families lately?

If that question were to be asked, I'm sure, the silence would be deafening.

Methinks the politicians are trying to bully DILG Secretary Lim and cow him from the start, so they can impose their will on him (such as leaving their local government "favorites" alone) and teach him to lick ass.

They don't have a chance of a snowflake in hell to get Lim to crawl to them on bended knee. If they "roast" Lim in the Commission on Disappointments (how many foul balls have they "approved" with alacrity, only to have those idiots and cretins kicked out of the government later?), let them think twice. An alarmed and aggrieved citizenry will render their own verdict on these political opportunists when next they run for election or reelection.

Right now we need a strong man, not a wimp, or a toady of political high muckamucks to patrol our neighborhoods and crush crime. The criminal syndicates grow richer and more arrogant daily and, quite clearly, have a lot of greedy people in their pockets.

Did I say politicians? Did I say journalists? Not at all. I leave that to the public to decide.

On another issue, I don't believe the people -- meaning ordinary Joes and Juans like you and me -- are afraid of seeing Marines in their white caps and tan shirts, carrying only sidearms, standing guard on sidewalks and intersections. Except in Mindanao, perhaps, owing to the fear that soldiers attract rebel attacks like sugar and molasses draw flies, civilians somehow tend to trust them more, alas, than they do policemen.

The Director of the Philippine National Police, General Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, in fact, had to swallow his pride when he admitted that he needed to call in the Marines. By this move, he indicated that his own PNP had difficulty coping.

True enough in this muckraking, scandal-mongering country of ours, malicious intent is always given due course, and nobody -- least of all the President -- gets the benefit of the doubt.

What? Erap is bent on imposing "martial law"? What on earth for? He's President until the Year 2004, and even the Stratfor Report is vague about how he'll suddenly "disappear" in midterm. So why should he call in the military this early in the day?

Aha, another "explanation" surfaces. Erap is scared of a military coup d'etat kuno -- remember, the last "deadline" set by the putschist-spotters was New Year's Eve. But all we got was a lot of explosions from expensive fireworks, while hedonism instead of revolution waxed and waned. Now, they're "saying" the kudeta will come in May. Why not next September? Anyway, those "loyal" Marines are being spread around Metro Manila, the cynics claim, to defend the President in an emergency.

Then, we have the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), never great fans of Estrada. They scoff that the deployment of Marines is "overkill." If you ask me, I'd rather overkill crime than let crime kill me. Those saintly Bishops are probably confident that if they're martyred or murdered by hoodlums and robbers, they'll go straight to Heaven. Since I'm not sure in which direction my soul might be headed -- I'll take a chance on the Marines. They just might, at a chancey moment, manage to keep me breathing.

The most incensed of all, naturally, are the politicians. Why? I know not. But I have my own suspicions. (C'mon, guys, you're not the only ones entitled to paranoia.)

Senate President Blas Ople has asked the President to rescind the order to deploy the Marines. Joining him in his griping are Senators Raul Roco (no surprise), Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Tito Guingona, former Defense Minister Johnny Ponce Enrile, Juan Flavier, Francisco Tatad, Robert Barbers -- and one more. The other Senator protesting is former AFP Chief of Staff and Marine commander Rodolfo "Pong" Biazon. He complained that sending Marines to patrol Metro Manila has paralyzed (hampered?) the operations of the Marines, who are only 10,000 strong throughout the country.

Of course, in his time, General Biazon -- who bravely fought in the Mindanao wars -- was a no-nonsense professional Marine. But possibly he might have grown much too acclimated to the less Spartan habits of politicians, since he's been one for a long time.

Are the Marines now being fielded to "protect" us, the taxpayers (and even the tax-evaders) in Metro Manila -- yes, even in the shopping malls where the masa and the mahirap democratically rub shoulders with the "other" classes to mutually enjoy the free air-conditioning -- really being misused?

There may be a few stray Marines called back from combat duty in the boondocks (the American slang for bundoks or mountains). And why not? It's a kind of R & R for the weary warrior.

But what doesn't impress me, really, about the Senators' complaints is that many of the Marines now in the city were actually "recalled" from posts where they were guarding the Senate and the House of Representatives (Batasan). Check it out. Don't take my word for it.

Gee whiz! Why don't our rich solons appropriate a fund so they can hire their own bodyguards? Aling Kurdapia and Juan de la Cruz Taxpayer need protection more desperately.

Will our Marines spook the tourists? A final comment. Some might even think they're cute.

Now, back to the real Moro War. After a day and a half of heavy fighting, government forces retook the town of Talayan from a reported 1,000 Muslim rebels. The military also punched through a rebel roadblock that was placed to blockade the Isulan-Cotabato highway between Cotabato City and General Santos City.

We keep on scheduling "peace talks" with Ustadz Salamat Hashim and his henchmen, like Ghazali Jaafar, of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) -- the next futile meeting of this never-ending "peace process" is set for next week. Why on earth do we insist on talking "peace" with them when, in between, they go on murdering, kidnapping, raping, and setting fire to chapels?

Don't we get the message? It's a fight to the finish between Islamic fanatics and those weak-kneed Christians, namely us. Just like the Americans described the Indians in their grab for the West, the Moros from childhood seem to have been taught, "The only good Christian is a dead Christian."

Do I speak too harshly? The other night, on cable television, the Turner TNT Channel featured the life and movies of the famous star whose "action" career spanned two generations -- Gary Cooper. "Coop" was lauded for his popular and prize-winning movies, such as Beau Geste, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, High Noon, and Sergeant York. Even Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.

They forgot to mention one of his movies, shot in the Philippines, where he played a young American officer in the Philippine Constabulary (PC), then under General John J. Pershing. It was about fighting the Moros and the Moro juramentado. The picture, The Real Glory, was filmed in 1939.

When Pershing was commander of the PC in Mindanao, I was told as a young reporter in one of my earlier assignments there, he and his valiant 200 PC -- yes 200 -- confiscated 7,000 firearms from the Muslim datus and "bandit" forces (as they were called then). The Moros even cast their own type of lantaka or native cannon.

Pershing, "Coop" etc., are long gone.

Here we are, in the Year 2000, and we're still being attacked by the same Moros. They must be trying to tell us something, but we don't seem to be listening. It's "fight, or give up -- surrender." Are they on the point of surrendering their "guaranteed" safe sanctuary, Camp Abubakar? A sacrosanct, government-protected, military camp of a rebel army in the heart of Mindanao, in the sovereign Philippines? Even letting them maintain a safe haven, from which they can emerge to kill and plunder, is an act of surrender on the part of our State.

Look next door -- to Indonesia, with its 200,745,000 people, almost 90 percent Muslim. What do we read in the news dispatches? In Jakarta, the capital, last Friday, 300,000 chanting Indonesian Muslims massed in a central square, calling for a jihad (holy war) to avenge those "Muslims" killed by "Christians" in the Maluku Islands, otherwise known as the Spice Islands. What was all that bloodthirsty yelling about? Some 1,700 persons were killed in communal riots between Christians and Muslims -- when a vehicle driven by a Christian struck and ran over a Muslim boy. And those 200 million Muslims over there want to crush a few thousand Christians in a jihad?

Fair is fair. We've leaned over backwards. We've welcomed all religions -- whether Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist, Confucianist, Moncadistas as well as Catholics and Protestants, along with the crankiest of sects, or atheists, in our Filipino nation. Muslims have sat proudly in our House and Senate, and the Supreme Court. They rule in their own provinces (and oppress their own as well). Yet, we're "the Filipinos" -- and what do we find the Islamic separatists yelling? That we're the "enemy."

Don't you think enough is enough?